Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, University of Erfurt (Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultat), course: Reading Course in Early American Literature, language: English, abstract: Herman Melville's novel "e;Benito Cereno"e; was published 1856 in "e;The Piazza Tales"e;. It based on a real-life incident described in Amasa Delano's "e;Narrative of Voyages and valley in the Northern and Western Hemispheres"e; (1817). Relying on the source for the basic plot, Melville added a few additions to transform the factual report in a cryptic narrative relevant for readers of the 1850s. This term paper deals with the question of how the author deals with certain issues and why.